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Have you seen Acorn Woodpeckers? They are very interesting birds both in appearance and behavior. They have red, black, and white coloring on their feathers, and they feed on mainly acorns and will store them in caches for eating during the winter.1
While they’ll eat other things, like ants, acorns are their favorite and make up about 50% of their diet. They will create holes in a tree and store their acorns there. These birds live in groups that include around 12 Acorn Woodpeckers and they’ll work together to raise offspring and defend their food stores from other birds.2
These groups usually include several breeding females, and the males will mate with multiple females. There is a perk to living in this rare situation – all of the birds will help incubate the eggs and raise the next generation. The same goes for storing acorns. The main perk of that habit is that these birds don’t have to migrate to find food in the winter. They’ll have them already stored and prepared.1
These birds are cavity nesters and will usually create their nests high up over the ground. The group will help create a cavity for the nest together. Acorn Woodpeckers are very vulnerable to climate change. Projections show they could lose over 50% of their current territory if climate change worsens.2
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